ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XXKV 
and to a certain extent with geology. Comparative anatomy and 
osteology were an altogether unknown region; but I found myself 
drawn into it by the remains of a long-extinct fauna. And the 
first impulse was given by the discovery of a perfect fossil skull of 
an ox, with a wound in the frontal bone; this led to my busying 
myself with other fossil bones, and even to the discovery of some. 
The attempts to determine their nature are contained in my “ Bei- 
trige zur Petrefaktenkunde,” which extend through several volumes 
of the ‘ Acta’ of the Leopoldino-Caroline Academy.” 
The first portion of the “ Beitrage,”’ to which Von Meyer here 
alludes, is published in the ‘Nova Acta’ for 1829, in that fiftieth 
volume which contains Goethe’s famous essay on the intermaxillary 
bone; and it includes four essays which offer a good example of 
the extent and variety of Von Meyer’s knowledge, even at that time. 
The first is upon an Orthoceratite, the second upon Mastodon arver- 
nensis, the third on Aptychus, the fourth on two new fossil reptiles, 
Rhacheosaurus and Pleurosaurus. For thirty years Von Meyer 
poured forth a continuous torrent of excellent and richly illustrated 
memoirs, sometimes upon Mollusca, sometimes on Crustacea, some- 
times upon Fishes, but most commonly upon Reptiles and Mam- 
malia. 
The most complete monograph extant on the Amphibia of the 
Carboniferous epoch is by Von Meyer; the only monograph upon 
the Permian feptilia is also from his pen. The great work upon 
the Fauna of the Muschelkalk, which was published in 1547-1852, 
is a wonderful monument of patient and skilful labour, and when 
it appeared, effected a revolution in the minds of geologists as to 
the character of the Triassic fauna, which instead of being poverty- 
stricken, as some supposed, revealed about eighty species of Laby- 
rinthodonts and Reptiles in Germany alone. This fine monograph 
was supplemented by several excellent memoirs on the Triassic 
Fauna in the ‘ Palzontographica.’ No less valuable is the work upon 
the Fauna of the Lithographic slates, which affords a complete con- 
spectus of the Reptiles of that rich deposit. 
In the preface to the memoir on the fossils of Georgensgmiind, to 
which I have already referred, Von Meyer makes some excellent 
remarks on the value of drawing as a help to the paleontologist, 
and on the frequent imperfections of drawings of fossils, and espe- 
cially of osteological subjects, which are not made by persons con- 
versant with anatomy. “I knew all this well enough,” says he, 
“but I had no practice with the pencil, nor any experience in 
managing light and shade.” ‘This was a difficulty which would 
have appalled most men, but not Von Meyer, who set to work to 
teach himself drawing; with what admirable success all who are 
familiar with his works know. For it was Von Meyer’s practice to 
draw all the illustrations of his numerous memoirs on the stone ; 
and, at a rough estimate, some hundreds of quarto and folio plates 
must have proceeded from his swift and accurate pencil. There are 
seventy folio plates in the ‘ Saurier des Muschelkalkes ’ alone. 
Though he must have deyoted an immense amount of time and 
